Saturday, 27 September 2014

Three signs you are indeed worried

First off, let me start by saying I’m not a worrier. It’s my
best and worst trait. Not worrying means I keep a straight face when the
traffic officers stop us for overtaking and I don’t have my license with me,
but then it also means I kept that same straight face when I came home with an
E on my report card for chemistry. Needless to say, my “lack of concern” was
not taken kindly by my parents. It also helps that the Bible has 365 “worry not’s”
altogether, one for each day.

So when I googled ‘causes of insomnia’, I was quite
perturbed when each of the 376,590 results showed worry as one of the causes. Then
came the self assessment, trying to see if indeed there were things in my life
that people in general tend to worry about and the answer was a big fat no; my
life is great and I have many many blessings to be thankful for. It took me a
while to realize that the sneaky bastard had indeed found a crevice to crawl
through into my life and once inside, went on to get comfortable and fatten,
all without my realization.

Here’s how I know I’m worried even when I don’t think I’m
worried;

Comparison

All kind of comparison is unhealthy, especially the one
where you compare your achievements so far to those of your peers. Why is she
driving a Mercedes when she is four years younger than me? Why is she getting
awards for most talented yet I’ve been working for more years? What does this
mean for me? Am I lagging behind? Am I unserious? Is there something I’m not
doing right, or not doing at all? Should I resort to her methods of getting
things done even though I don’t believe I should? If you have asked yourself
any of these questions a good number of times over a short period of time, then
there is some worry you have to deal with.

Living in the past
and the future

I usually find myself trying to place myself in a situation I
was in in the past, especially if it was one of significance or of happiness. I
try to remember and feel how I felt then, what I was seeing, the expressions on
people’s faces, the weather, the noise, everything. Just imagine time travel,
or teleporting to a particular date and time and place and reliving the
moments. I also do that for the future. If I had this, or if I finally got
that, how would I feel…I then proceed with the time travel once again. It’s a habit
I’m trying to stop. It’s also a sign that I’m worried about some aspects of the
present, whether you know it or not.

Random and extreme changes in appetite

No, it’s not the way the food smells or looks. It’s not
because you’ve been trying to lose weight and oh, it’s a miracle!! It’s worry. One
moment you just can’t eat enough, and the next you’re wondering why people even
need food at all, ’I mean, what’s the fuss about?’ If these changes are
sporadic and not evenly spread out recently in your life, chances are something
is worrying you, and you just don’t know it yet.